|
Post by acrogers on May 19, 2010 19:26:32 GMT 9.5
As we know, in all Co-Masonic Lodges a Ruby Lamp represents the Sacred Fire, one of the oldest symbols in the world. To the Zoroastrians, God, or the Ultimate Divine Principle could never be represented by images, but only by the flame of a consecrated fire. I presume that for most people who think about such things the Sacred Fire represents both the presence of God and also enlightenment.
Symbolically of course the Sacred Fire never goes out, and I suppose one could say that as far as the Inner Planes are concerned every time we light a Ruby Lamp, we do indeed light it at a certain level from the Eternal Flame. Be that as it may, there is actually an ancient Zoroastrian temple still functioning in a remote part of Iran, in which the flame has burned continuously for over three thousand years, which is something to think about surely.
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on May 20, 2010 10:57:47 GMT 9.5
Can you find a link to a site re the Zoroastrian Temple Adrian? I would like to know more about that. I think it quite significant that the flame is red - a clue to look for it in the human heart? The 'permanent atom' is supposed to be situated in the top LH side of the physical heart, an area that surgeons won't touch I am told. I hope to meet a heart surgeon one day (socially ) so I can ask for myself. Does the male craft have a Ruby Lamp? THE INDIVIDUALITY OF KUNDALINI (An energy sometimes referred to as a divorced person or widow)
In some mysterious way Kundalini remains for ever individual to its recipient, however much it may always be inseparable from the Universal Fire whence it issues forth. In some mysterious way it partakes of the nature of the Permanent Atom, cannot disintegrate, and forms the eternal Fire of the evolving individuality.
www.hermetics.org/kundalini.html
|
|
maat
Strength
Posts: 35
|
Post by maat on May 20, 2010 11:26:25 GMT 9.5
Jesus was always cloaked in red and homage paid to His Sacred Heart. Maybe we all have sacred hearts .. ? His (Father/Son) Light shines in the darkness of the physical heart of every one of us?
|
|
|
Post by acrogers on May 20, 2010 11:46:35 GMT 9.5
I will find out if the Male Craft have a ruby lamp. Regarding the colour red, maat has made the point that Jesus is often (not always by the way) cloaked in red, and his Sacred Heart is shown red. However, it does not always seem to indicate love. Look at El Greco's painting of Christ cleansing the Temple of the money changers. His robe is red there, but there's nothing loving about the painting. However, Mary Magdalene is also often robed in red, so perhaps the love theme is restored there. I have a poem about the Sacred Fire, but I'm not sure whether to put it on Poets Corner or not. I don't want to appear to be hogging all that space. Will try and find out the location of that Zoroastrian temple.
|
|
maat
Strength
Posts: 35
|
Post by maat on May 20, 2010 12:27:37 GMT 9.5
True Initiates are supposed to be cloaked in red cloaks. According to the popular books of late re Mary Magdalene she was cloaked in red to indicate her status as an Initiate.
Wonder why Cardinals wear red. Never thought to ponder on that one before. I have a cousin who is a nun, will have to ask her.
|
|
maat
Strength
Posts: 35
|
Post by maat on May 20, 2010 12:28:23 GMT 9.5
PS ... keep posting your poems. I find them thought provoking.
|
|
|
Post by paul on May 20, 2010 12:53:35 GMT 9.5
In the absence of candles it is not necessary to have an originating flame.
My current lodge uses electric lights - with a lesser effect
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on May 20, 2010 13:01:01 GMT 9.5
THE RED SEA IS YOUR BLOOD Oh my .. look what I happened across whilst researching 'red'..from this site on Alfred Boyd Kuhn (love his work).
As to this is can be said at once that virtually all Scriptural allegories and other semantic modes of representing exalted truth and noumenal realities have but one basic theme to dilate upon -- the incarnation of souls in mortal bodies here on earth. That is the ubiquitous omnipresent theme at the heart of nearly all Biblical writing. This basic event, the essence of human life itself, is treated, enlivened, illuminated by a great variety of imaginative constructions, and this is possible because all living forms manifest the basic principle from one angle or another and can be dramatized by one typology or another. Life everywhere speaks the same language and harps upon the same chords.
This Red Sea episode of the sacred allegory was formulated in order to transfix the more capable human conceptual faculty with the reality of the spiritual fact that the divine seed-soul, a unit of God's mind-generated being, a true Son of the Father, had in incarnation to escape from a bondage to the lower nature of the animal body in which it was housed for its journey through this mortal life, by crossing a place, state or condition of existence symbolized most fittingly by a body of water. This typism is found universally in the arcane wisdom literature. Very many instances of it could be cited, -- and have been in our other works. If one says that in life after life, or in the complete cycle of incarnate life, the soul has to wade through the "sea of life" eventually to land on that "farther shore" of celestial delight and radiance, the poetic figure sinks deeply enough into the average mind to register the general sense of the incarnation experience. If, however, the language of symbolism had been continuously cultivated since ancient days the figure would release upon consciousness the vivid force of its real significance.
pc93.tripod.com/redsea.htm
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on May 20, 2010 13:04:02 GMT 9.5
Odd thing was just the other day, on another thread, I was wondering about what it was that parted the Red Sea... we were delving into shamir & stones then. And the shamir: "a worm or a substance that had the power to cut through or disintegrate stone, iron and diamond. It was used by King Solomon in the building of the First Temple in Jerusalem in the place of cutting tools" Seek and you shall find ;D Love it! Thank you God.
|
|
|
Post by paul on May 20, 2010 17:42:58 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on May 21, 2010 10:06:57 GMT 9.5
According to the biblical account Moses' staff was used to part the Red Sea. In the link I provided in Reply #7 there is evidence to suggest that there was a mistranslation in the Bible story and that the correct translation is Reed Sea. The infant Moses (Thutmose's?) was set to float amongst the reeds by his mother ... ?? And if the 'red sea' is our blood stream, what might be the staff of Moses? That link is one of the most extraordinary reads I have had in years! I urge you all to read the entire (lengthy) essay to the very end. You might well discover some explanations or meaning of what you see in lodge work. It was so fascinating that I am going to start a new thread on this subject. We already have a 'Fishy' thread and we have already discussed the 'Sh'amir - (you will find so many more ways of looking at these topics if you follow this link). Good weekend reading.
|
|
|
Post by paul on May 21, 2010 10:27:29 GMT 9.5
The wish to make everything symbolic is also seen in Masonry.
There may however be composite accounts that attach inner meaning to outer events - both in Masonry and in the Bible.
A possible example is the manner of the death of Hiram where it is likely that Egyptian-Jewish ritual is combined with an account of the death of James the Just
|
|
|
Post by jzryk8 on May 21, 2010 17:44:12 GMT 9.5
Colours in general play such an important part of our Masonic path, however there are so many ways to deal with this aspect it is hard to know a strating point.
However, as my path has a distinct Kabalistic 'bent' - most of my Lectures in the Lodge and the TS have been around Kabalah and aspects relating to this, I would suggest that looking at the Kabalah and the Colours asspciate with the Sephira, the paths and the Worlds will provide a multitude of research and though possibilities. John Priede and I spent a lot of time on researching Colours/Numbers associated with the Tree of Life.
The attribution of colours to the existing Tree of Life diagrams in existence can be placed to the work done by S.L McGregor Mathers and others and their use within the Golden Dawn, where their work appears to be trying to unify the Western mystic traditions (including Judaism) with the Far Eastern practices like Tantra and the explanation of the Chakra.
It was McGregor Mathers who gave the 1st explanation of 4 colours to Malkuth, even though his colour scheme for Malkuth is quite different to that in SRIA or other orders where we use:
HB:Y --- Father ----- Red ------ Atziluth --- Fire HB:H --- Mother ----- Blue ----- Briah ------ Water HB:V --- Son -------- Yellow --- Yetzirah --- Air HB:H --- Daughter --- Black ---- Assiah ----- Earth
these also being used in the OTOI, where Mathers and the Golden Dawn use Black, Brown, Citrine, Green.
The colours associated with the paths (strings) in recent drawings, applies the following : • Following the guidelines in the Book of Exodus, the Triad comprising Kether, Bina and Hochmah remain White, signifying the colour of pure light; • The Triad comprising Binah, Hochmah and Tipereth are coloured Blue to represent the Spirit; • The side Triads from Hochmah and Binah down to Hod and Netzach, including Geburah and Hesed, centred on Tipereth, are coloured Purple, with a lighter shade, to represent the Soul. • The Triads of the lower face of the Tree can be coloured in Red of various hues with a Purple-Red in the Triad of Awakening.
Many books on the Kabbalah give the correspondences of the four scales of colour (based upon the 4 worlds) but fail to enlighten the student on the most important point, that this why and how it relates.
|
|
|
Post by jzryk8 on May 21, 2010 17:51:56 GMT 9.5
Also, in regards to the Male Craft and the Sacred Flame/Red Lamp, there is no Red Lamp in the 3 Craft Degrees (is in other Septs and Orders/Higher Degrees), however the Sacred Flame is evident in the 1st 3 Degrees in other ways, one example being the Sword of the Tyler which is in the shape of a Flame.
My Partner who is a Druid, uses a Flaming Lamp (Blue) to attract the spirits of the Ancestors - similar to some Chinese paths. The Colour Blue is used as that represents the Colour of the World/Realm that they inhabit.
If you are researching more, have a look at the use of the Colour Red in the Rosicrusians.
|
|
|
Post by jzryk8 on May 21, 2010 17:52:36 GMT 9.5
SRIA Tree Of Life and its Colour Associations. Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by fitviavi on May 23, 2010 15:16:52 GMT 9.5
Does the male craft have a Ruby Lamp? Maybe! See around 2mins 5 secs into the following video from Adelaide: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnZMBieoMPURuby lamps can be seen in certain churches.
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on May 24, 2010 13:02:22 GMT 9.5
HB:Y --- Father ----- Red ------ Atziluth --- Fire
Interesting that in Royal Arch the colour of the Father rules supreme and not the colour of the King (Purple) which is left to the Prophet.
Might that not indicate that the 'The Father' Eternal Life itself is in the blood and that is why the heart is considered sacred?
It may also explain why Grail cups, bowl, recepticles etc often feature in ancient tales. Why is the Blood and Heart of Jesus honoured so? Sangreal?
Ecc 12:6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. 7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Blood is what holds dust to spirit 'down here' ?
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on May 24, 2010 13:07:40 GMT 9.5
Does the male craft have a Ruby Lamp? Maybe! See around 2mins 5 secs into the following video from Adelaide: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnZMBieoMPURuby lamps can be seen in certain churches. That was impressive! (I was in that very room on Saturday, without the pyrotechnics)
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on May 24, 2010 13:19:07 GMT 9.5
SRIA Tree Of Life and its Colour Associations. Here is the TOL with slight different colouration. It would be interesting to compare them. www.bota.org/resources/index.html
|
|
|
Post by LorrB on May 24, 2010 13:26:22 GMT 9.5
This is my favourite Ruby Lamp ... and this was before the lodge was opened. Take note of the orb at its base... Uploaded with ImageShack.usCould be described as wheels within wheels .. I have one photo with an orb over a Bro Crown chakra and another over his Heart chakra - which to me means it isn't a speck of dust.
|
|